


Until Tomorrow

by xvav (lieutenantaclassi)



Category: RWBY
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-23 02:05:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6101226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lieutenantaclassi/pseuds/xvav
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Between turning into a bird and getting shitfaced, the bird alternative was probably the better one since it at least didn't include vomit and a hangover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Until Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a short scenario about this on tumblr a week or so ago (?) and I decided to actually make a short oneshot out of it. I don't have time to update Facing Demons right now since I need to figure out a thing in chapter 7, and because of school.  
> So instead you get this for now!

If there was one thing that made James Ironwood  _really_ miss being out on the field, it was being stuck doing paperwork. It felt as if he had been stuck at his desk forever, and the piles of paper just didn't seem to ever end. And he had to go through them thoroughly before singing things and making sure that they'd be send off to their final destinations, often another part of Atlas.

James had been working for almost nine hours when he suddenly heard the sound of fluttering wings and cawing in his office, a sound that he was rather used to.

"I'm busy, Qrow," he murmured and didn't bother to look at the bird that had landed on his shoulder, "I did tell you that I'd get home late today."

Qrow just cawed at him again before taking off and flying around in lazy circles before dropping something on James's desk. It was probably something shiny for the ever growing collection in one of James's drawers. Even though most of the things Qrow brougth usually weren't more than shiny pieces of scrap metals or pretty rocks, he couldn't bring himself to throw them away. He'd probably add the newest gift later.

Later, because right now he didn't have time for Qrow's antics, so he ignored the stubborn bird and its gift, instead signing yet another paper and placing it in the rightmost pile which meant it was ready to be delivered to its final destination. Thankfully that pile had become bigger than the pile of untouched papers, but there was still quite a long way to go. James imagined he'd have to spend at least one or two more long days cooped up in his office. Winter had offered to help, but this was business only he could attend to. Otherwise he would have been tempted to let her help.

Of course Qrow didn't seem to care about that since he refused to let James concentrate on his work. Instead the bird got up on the new paper and stared at James before picking on his metal hand. 

Since James couldn't do any work when Qrow stood on it, he sighed and finally acknowledged the bird, "What is it, Qrow? Can't it wait for a couple of more hours?"

The bird cawed again and jumped a bit to the left where he picked up the shiny object from earlier. Now that he had James's attention, he dropped it by his hand and picked at it once more to assure that James would look.

"What is it that's so important that you have to show it to me right now?" James asked as he looked at the object, it was a ring, "This could be someone's..."

Normally Qrow didn't bring him things that appeared to be too valuable since it very well could be someone who had dropped something important to them. But this ring looked new, as if it hardly had been worn. James looked at it closely from different angles and frowned. There was an inscription on the inside. A date.

"This..." James's eyes widened and he turned his gaze towards the bird as he realized what it meant, "Oh my God... Qrow, are you serious? Are you doing what I think you're doing? Is _this_ how you decide to propose?"

For a moment the two of them just stared at each other, James just waiting for Qrow to get off of the desk and turn back into a human. But Qrow appeared to have a different plan because he took off flying, immediately heading towards the window that James almost always kept open just to let Qrow enter and exit freely. 

But James knew exactly what Qrow was trying to do so he quickly got up from his chair.

“Oh no you don’t!” he exclaimed as he hurried towards the window and slammed it shut right before Qrow could fly through it.

James's sudden action caused Qrow to almost crash into the window and he was really lucky to manage to take a sharp turn around. But by doing so he didn't have time to react before flying right into the crystal chandelier. James grimaced as he heard the rustling sounds caused by the collision, and he saw a couple of feathers flutter down towards the floor. That couldn't have been a comfortable collision.

“Damn it, Qrow…” he tiredly said as he looked up. Qrow was obviously stuck in the chandelier, the many crystals getting tangled into his wings, “You need to calm down!”

Qrow didn’t seem to listen though, instead he squawked and flapped his wings wildly in an attempt to get out of his crystal prison, but it just resulted in him getting even more stuck.

James sighed heavily as he put the ring down on his desk and grabbed one of the chairs by his desk, pulling it up underneath the crystal chandelier and standing up on it. It was good that he was tall, otherwise there would be no way for him to reach the struggling bird.

“Would you _please_ stop flapping your wings?” James asked in annoyance as he almost got a wing slapped into his face, “You are going to get yourself hurt!”

For a while James stood there and cursed loudly as Qrow kept struggling, but once Qrow realized that it didn’t help he stopped and let out a pitiful caw. It wasn’t a single bit comfortable having a bunch of crystals tangled into his feathers. Several more feathers had gotten pulled out during his struggle, and it had hurt quite a lot. 

“You know, if you just maybe stopped being so dramatic…” James gritted his teeth and unwrapped some of the crystals from Qrow’s wings, trying to not hurt him, “Then things like this wouldn’t happen, and both of us would be much happier.”

Since he stillw as stuck, Qrow couldn’t do much more than just caw and occasionally squawk if James tugged too hard to get him out. In total it took James about ten minutes to fully free the damned bird, and once he was done he stepped down from the chair and held Qrow in a firm grip, not about to let him fly off again.

“Now,” James started as he sat down in his office chair and looked down at the bird in his hands, “Did you honestly think that this was a good way to go about things, Qrow?”

The crow squawked and picked on James normal hand, but not hard enough to draw blood. He was obviously just trying to make James let go of him so he could make another attempt at fleeing.

“You can’t just drop a ring like that and then take off flying,” James scoffed as Qrow kept picking on his hand, “What was it? Did you get cold feet, or did you think I’d reject you so you decided to flee before I could say anything? There’s no way out now, Qrow. And you _are_ going to change back, because I refuse to keep this conversation up any longer if you insist on staying in bird-form. I do not speak bird.” 

James had expected Qrow to at least give him some kind of warning before he changed, he usually did. But apparently he had decided to not do it this time because just seconds after telling Qrow to change back, James found himself tumbling out of his office chair. He landed on the floor and groaned in pain as he felt an elbow get shoved into his side. That would possibly leave a bruise.

“Qrow, I’m going to –“

“You did tell me to change back,” Qrow said, his voice muffled since he quickly had buried his face in James’s shoulder.

“A bit of a warning would have been nice,” James murmured but wrapped his arms around Qrow, not bothering to try and get up from the floor. Qrow didn’t seem to have any plans of leaving anytime soon anyways, “So, was that an attempt at a proposal?”

“It’s up for interpretation.”

“Oh, really?” James dryly asked, “To be honest, it wasn’t very romantic. And I doubt the chandelier will ever look the same. I believe several feathers still are stuck in it, too." 

Qrow sighed into James’s shoulder, "I was deciding between bird or getting shitfaced."

And he felt like an idiot for not being able to just walk into the office and propose like a normal human being. But he knew he would have chickened out unless he'd gotten wasted before. And throwing up after proposing was even less romantic than doing it as a bird. Qrow tensed up and held on tightly to James, awaiting rejection. Maybe he should just have enjoyed what they had without trying to take things to the next level.

But Qrow didn't really have a reason to worry, because no rejection came. Instead he felt James's tighten his embrace.

"Yes, you idiot," James softly said after a while, "I'll marry you."

Qrow's eyes widened in disbelief and he pushed himself up far enough so he could look down at James’s face, resulting in James grunting as Qrow's elbow once more was shoved into his ribs, “Are you serious?”

“Someone needs to be around to pick you out of crystal chandeliers,” James chuckled as he grabbed Qrow's elbow, moving it just a bit to the side, “You can be quite a fool at times, but I love you more than anything.”

Finally Qrow smiled back at James, “Well, I’m _your_ fool then.”

“I’d not have it any other way.”

And with that James put a hand on the back of Qrow's head and pulled him back down for a kiss.

"Weren't you busy?" Qrow murmured once they parted and kissed James's cheek.

"I think I can possibly reserve some time for you until tomorrow," James ran his hands down Qrow's back and smirked as Qrow caught on and pressed his hips against James with a sly grin on his face.

Yes, the paperwork could _definitely_ wait for a day or two.

**Author's Note:**

> The papers probably got scattered and messed up once James decided to bend Qrow over that desk of his. Because we all know that's totally what happened.


End file.
